Author
Topic: New Rovers! (Read 2258 times)

Was up in Peterborough Ontario at Maar's Music this morning and noticed they had ordered in 4 new wood styles of the Rover! The nice lady I chatted with said she had just ordered them in and that they were brand new. Not even on the Washburn website yet.

The new woods are Koa Top, Cedar Top, Spalted Maple Top and Zebrawood top. I'm guessing based on the price point that they are laminates but we couldn't figure that out based on the tags and box. They also do not appear to be photo wood….

Here are pix of the Spalted Maple and the Zebrawood Rovers. I came really close to picking up the Spalted Maple top Rover there, Sound wise there were very subtle differences in tone but not having time to really check them out I'm not sure that wasn't just in my head vs what I was really hearing.

Niteshooter...I read this article some time ago, thought the RO10KK was kind of cool (still do)...this article might give you more insight as to what's happening with the wood/s on these new Rovers. If I had the extra buck, I would love to pick up that RO10KK. I think that it would be a great little addition to the stable.

Interesting, have not seen these guys before or read about them. Thanks for the link to that article had not read it before either.

When I was in the store the person I was speaking with checked the Washburn website and these aren't even listed there! When I got home I googled them up and only found mention of them on a site from the UK which was kind of interesting. What struck me from the photos was that the wood grains were completely different than what I saw so my best guess is that these are not photo wood which is great and it seems that way from the article you linked as well but nobody is saying if these are laminates either throughout or the sides and back.

I wish I had spent more time examining the one's on display today but I was in a hurry to get back to Toronto. From my photos it feels like the back is laminated but I have no idea about the rest of it. What was cool is that the specialty woods are used on top, back and sides and that spalted maple had a back as amazing as the top.

I guess on the bright side I didn't get a chance to open up and look at the Koa or I might have brought that one home.

Did check out the current prices of the older Rovers and these 'new' (for me) one's are only about $20 can more. In hind sight maybe I should have gone for one since Rover's are not very common up here in any flavour and these even less common.

You're most welcome Niteshooter...I also have been checking out the Washburn website for some time now and have not seen any mention of the new Rovers in any way. I too have noticed that these new Rovers seem to have been selling in the UK for some time and, as you say, now in Canada. I have not seen any mention of them being sold in America so far...have not seen any reviews on these guitars (positive or negative) as of yet. Would like to read some, before purchasing one...better yet, get my hands on one before buying. Like you said "but nobody is saying if these are laminates either throughout or the sides and back".....What gets me is that the "woods" used for these guitars has not been fully explained, or have been fully explained...anywhere, that I know of. We all have run into ads for guitars using these phrases, "Select Spruce Top" or "Select Mahogany back and sides" etc. To those of us who have been involved with guitar for a while, these words are mostly understood, but for those who have not, of course these words can be quite confusing, (actually I've always thought these words come off as kind of dodgy and a little misleading when reading an ad and trying to decide whether to buy a guitar or not). In the article you read words like this: "featuring back and sides that were crafted from Koa" or "the guitar is crafted from spalted maple" and "The other two 2015 Washburn Rover models feature more conventional wood combinations", I guess that means that some kind of wood filler is being used?......yeah..I know this article is not meant to give a definitive description of these new Rovers (that's why I think it would behoove Washburn to post their own definitive description and specs on these guitars on their website or even here) but; I'm thinking that in any situation, one would like to know what "exactly" they are purchasing or about to purchase when buying a guitar. I guess it goes back to the old adage, if it does not have the characters SW within the model name it could be made of any type of wood or combinations thereof.